A new contract that has the approval of a Minneapolis, Minnesota teachers union would require white teachers to be laid off first in the event of budget cuts, with teachers of color having their jobs preserved. An attorney calls it open discrimination.
The contract began to take shape on March 25 of this year, after negotiations began with the goal of ending a 14-day teacher strike. The contract has since been ratified, according to Alpha News.
According to the contract, should the district need to reduce its staff, a proposal regarding “educators of color protections” would see non-white teachers with less seniority preserved and white teachers canned, the website reports.
“Starting with the Spring 2023 Budget Tie-Out Cycle, if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the District shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population,” the agreement stipulates.
A Minneapolis teachers union contract stipulates that white teachers will be laid off or reassigned before “educators of color” in the event Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) needs to reduce staff. https://t.co/K62vfM2NaV
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) August 14, 2022
Apparently “excessing” means “reducing staff in a particular school when there is a reduction in the number of available positions in a title or license area in that school,” per the United Federation of Teachers.
Discriminating against white people, apparently, is meant “to remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination by the District” which it is claimed “disproportionately impacted the hiring of underrepresented teachers in the District” and “resulted in a lack of diversity for teachers.”
Washington, D.C.-based attorney Hans Bader wrote an article for Liberty Unyielding explaining that he believes the policy is in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
“When it comes to termination (as opposed to hiring or promotion under an affirmative-action plan), an employer can’t racially discriminate even against whites,” wrote Bader, citing a 1996 ruling that determined schools “can’t consider race even as a tie-breaker, in deciding who to lay off, even to promote diversity.”
Bader cites no less than 9 separate court cases to bolster his point regarding the illegality of the anti-white policy.
"The stated justification for these measures is to remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination by the District."
When you fight discrimination with more discrimination. 🥴https://t.co/aBrQauS1k2
— Sydney Watson (@SydneyLWatson) August 15, 2022
The Star Tribune reports that around 16% of teachers in the district with tenure and 27% of its probationary teachers are non-white, and over 60% of students are non-white.
However, it may be worth noting that the demographics Minneapolis have changed rapidly over the last decade as the city was on the receiving end of several waves of immigration from Somalia and other countries.
According to Metro Council, the population of people who are “Black, Indigenous or people of color now stands at 31%, up from 24% in 2010.”
